PRELIMINARY FACT SHEET ON FIU PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE COLLAPSE

• The Florida International University (FIU) pedestrian bridge was a local agency project,
not a Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) project.

• The bridge collapsed onto a state road, SW 8th Street in Miami, near FIU’s campus.

• FDOT is currently offering expertise and all necessary resources to local and federal
partners to respond to this tragic bridge failure and will proactively release all state
records related to this project as soon as possible.

• The designer, contractor and the Construction Engineering & Inspection (CEI) are all
under contract with FIU.

• The designer is Figg Engineering and the contractor who both built and installed the
structure is MCM. The CEI is Bolton Perez and Associates.

• Under the terms of the procurement issued by FIU and due to the unique characteristics
of the design of the bridge, an independent, secondary design check was required.
Under this project, it is the responsibility of FIU’s design build team to select the firm
used to conduct the independent, secondary review. The firm selected, Louis Berger,
was not FDOT pre-qualified for this service, which is required under FIU’s agreement
with the state. FIU’s design build team is responsible for selecting a pre-qualified firm
and ensuring this process is followed.

• This pedestrian walkway was built at an off-site location by MCM and moved into place
on March 10th. The walkway was set in place on top of two piers which were
constructed on-site. Again, this is not an FDOT project. FDOT’s role is to administer
funding and perform a preliminary review for general compliance with the
agreement between FIU and the state. FIU’s design build team is responsible for
the proper and safe completion of this project and for compliance with all
applicable laws and engineering and construction standards. Additionally, any
testing done to the structure following its installation was the responsibility of the
FIU design build team.

• FDOT’s involvement was limited to:

o issuing a permit for traffic control during installation of the structure last Saturday;
o acting as a pass-through for federal funding and providing $57,000 in state
funding for this $16.5 million project;
o conducting a routine preliminary review to ensure this project complied with the
terms of the agreement with the state. This is a standard process FDOT
conducts for projects like this; and
o authorizing FIU to utilize the aerial space above the state road to build a
structure, which FIU and its contractors are solely responsible to inspect and
maintain at the university’s sole expense.

Dick Kane
Communications Director
Florida Department of Transportation
605 Suwannee Street, MS 54
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0450
850-414-4595
dick.kane@dot.state.fl.us